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Levin Daily Chronicle, 9 April 1918, Page 4

According to a contemporary, if half the 40,000 car owners in New Zealand each travel but five miles a day for pleasure, we thus burn a quarter of a million cases of benzine annually. A Masterton soldier, writing to his parents, says: "If you send me parcelsj" please don't forgot to send tea and Three Castles cigarettes. They are the things most missed. A pound of tea now and again would be invaluableV A Masterton settler some months ago protested against one of his employees being sent into camp, as he was obviously unfit for service. The Defence authorities practically suggested that lie was harbouring a shirker. He was taken to camp, drilled, and sent to England, where he was immediately rejected. Pie is now back in Masterton looking for work, and he has cost the country anything between £300 and £400. / A posse of military police, an armed guard with fixed bayonets, drawn round a carriage with shaded windows, and curiosity soon drew a crowd to investigate the matter. It was not a draft of German prisoners, as surmised, but a draft of soldiers undergoing detention sentences on their way to Wanganui gaol, which has recently been converted into a military prison for this class of offender. "One dose of it will be sufficient," remarked a military official, who recently inspected the place of detention. "They should be amenable to discipline in camp after a visit to Wanganui gaol — it's a dismal place." A witness before the Military Appeal Board at Hawera admitted to the military representative that her son hod taken "French" leave—at least, she took it for him. "If he had been in Germany he would have been placed against a brick wall for this, and to would you," remarked a member of the board. "Well, sooner the better," I retorted the witness. Another appellant told the board that he had eight brothers, but he did not know where they were or what occupations they were following. He presumed they were somewhere in New Zealand. An unusual sequel to a recent divorce action was mentioned at the Supreme Court at Auckland last week, before Mr Justice Cooper. An application was made for the Court's sanction for the allocation of damages awarded the petitioner in a recent case. It was stated that the respondent, the wife, in the case has misconducted herself. The court granted a decree absolute, and fixed damages at £300 against the co-respondent. The costs were not paid for some time, and finally the corespondent deserted the respondent after two children had been born to them. Mutual friends brought the petitioner and respondent together again, and the husband re-married his divorced wife, taking over the care of his own five children and the co-respond-ent's tj-o children. The co-respond-ent was pressed for the payment of damages, and the amount was eventually paid into court, which was now asked to sanction a scheme for the damages to be secured for the benefit of the petitioner and the eight children, another child having been born since the petitioner and the respondent remarried. His Honor said that, as Mr Justice ITosking had adjudicated on the case, the papers should be forwarded to him for his judgment. Counsel was instructed to adopt this course.